Kingdom Hearts Legends: Hunter Games
by Master Sayaka
Summary: A year after the horrific events of Castle Oblivion, Riku and his team race to snatch Primrose Everdeen from her world before Organization XIII can use her heart to create a new super weapon.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One: Let the Games Begin**

I'm wearing a blindfold, but I can see. Darkness has its own kind of light once you get used to it. You start to see with your ears, your nose, your skin, and finally, with your fear. Colors are so much more vivid when they're all trying to kill you.

The Tribute Train is passing. It must be going pretty fast. I can feel the wind whooshing across my face even though I'm in a tree about fifty yards away. I count one, two, three cars. Primrose Everdeen will be in number twelve. That's her district. DiZ rigged everything to make sure she'd get on the train. He told me this world has a lottery system where they send two children, tributes, one male and one female, from each of twelve districts to a capitol city to fight to the death like gladiators. It's disgusting and I'd like to stop it, but we're not allowed to interfere in the affairs of other worlds.

Except this one time, for this one, special girl.

Sensing my window of opportunity, I leap for the train. The jump is much too far for a human to make, but I'm not human. Not anymore. I land on the roof of car twelve with a force strong enough to leave a sizable dent. "What was that?" comes a shrill voice from inside. "Probably the wind," a man answers. Then, all I can hear is the tinkling of the zipper on my black, hooded cloak. I smile as the tunnel approaches, press myself flat, and sink into the shadows.

I'm suspended on the roof of the inside of the car now. It's pretty ornate. Seated at a table, there's a ghastly woman with a pink wig, a dirty blonde boy with blue eyes, and a girl with black, braided hair and grayish green eyes. The kids look about my age, sixteen, but it wouldn't be fair to call me a kid anymore. The girl must be Primrose. I scurry silently to a corner like a spider and blend into the wall. I can hear the hairs on the girl's neck prickle. I prep myself to extract her, but a fat guy stumbles into the room before I can pounce. "Miss breakfast?" he mumbles. Then, he pukes and collapses. My nose curls at the smell of cheap liquor and stomach bile. The ghastly woman excuses herself and the kids argue about who's going to clean the drunk up. The boy wins, and I'm about to grab the girl when my earpiece buzzes. It's DiZ.

"Riku, they will expect foul play if she vanishes en route. Get her alone, wait until the train reaches the Capitol, and make it look like a very clever suicide."

I nod and pop out of sight as the girl brushes past. The message strikes me as incredibly vague and oddly timed. I can't understand what difference waiting will make, and I can't tell if the "they" DiZ mentioned are Capitol forces or Organization XIII. I'm more worried about the Organization, because it's not of this world, nor any world for that matter. Ever since encountering its shadowy members in Castle Oblivion, I've come to fear the number thirteen. I watched them kill my lifelong friend, Sora. He was like a brother to me. When they drained the last bit of his soul, he couldn't even remember his own name. That they're involved in this world, with its twelve districts and one capitol, gives me the willies. It's bad enough there used to be an actual thirteenth district. I hear it doesn't really exist anymore. Just like the members of the Organization.

_Why, out of all worlds,_ I wonder, _would they look for a Princess of Hearts here? And why now? They're sending a message. No, I'm just scaring myself._

Princess of Hearts. It's somewhat of a misnomer. Every world has at least one, but she doesn't have to be a literal princess. The name stuck because the first ones we knew about were. A Princess of Hearts is simply a young girl with an especially pure heart, the light of which guards her world against the darkness broiling beyond, whether she knows about it or not. My childhood crush, Kairi, was one. When I opened a door to travel to another world, exposure to the darkness killed her. And our world died too. Sora brought her back to life for a time, but the Organization fixed that.

Organization XIII is composed of people who don't really exist anymore. They lost their own hearts to the darkness, so now they burn other hearts as fuel to keep themselves from fading away into nothingness. They call it "reversing entropy." Princesses of Hearts contain the most power. The Organization is trying to find a way to use them to regain a complete existence. Killing a Princess means killing the world she guards. I've lost track of how many worlds have been lost. With each one, Organization XIII gets stronger.

That's why we're getting this Princess first.

I snap back to the present. Outside the window, I can see the Capitol blazing in the morning sun. Nestled against picturesque purple mountains, it's the most beautiful city I've ever seen. Its alabaster towers seem to scrape the heavens. I can tell it's high-tech too. DiZ is hiding somewhere inside there with all his equipment. He warned me this world might be advanced enough to counter a Keyblade wielder such as myself. Too bad they'll have to catch me first.

I hear a door slam. The sound maps out the entire car for me. Primrose Everdeen is in her private quarters.

"Diz," I whisper into a mouth piece, "I've got visual on the Capitol and I'm getting the girl now. Dispatch Mr. Valentine to the rendezvous point and have a sturdy ship ready. I don't know what kind of air forces we'll encounter, should things get messy."

"Affirmative, but do try to keep things clean. Sending you a Valentine."

I smirk and slink down the hallway. The ghastly woman opens a door and her eyes bulge when she sees me. I snap her neck before she can scream. The train is slowing, pulling into the station. We're inside the city walls. I don't have much time. Now I'm at the door. Rather than opening it, I create a portal of shadow and walk through it. The girl stands frozen, her mouth agape. She's in a pretty blue dress. I take in my reflection in a mirror. White hair, deathly pale skin, and two faintly glowing, amber orbs under my blindfold, right where my eyes used to be. No wonder she's scared. I'm glad I didn't walk in when she was naked. Not that it matters much.

"Primrose Everdeen," I extend a hand, "I'm Riku. I'm here to rescue you."

"But..." She backs away. "...that's my sister. I'm Katniss. Katniss Everdeen."

"What?" I gawk. Something laughs, then my feed with DiZ goes dead and screeches in my ear. I rip it off. I'm trembling. I know the trap is sprung. There's an explosion! I grab Katniss as the train rolls like a log. Everything gets still. She coughs, but she's okay.

That's when the sirens start.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two: The Girl on Fire**

I yell that we need to move, but Katniss just stares. I'm afraid she's in shock. Outside, there's gunfire and the screech of metal against metal. Screams. More booms. The Capitol's being bombed. I've never been in the middle of an Organization XIII full assault. I have no idea what to expect. My hands are shaking. I shimmy up what used to be the floor and bust a window out with my fist. I turn back for Katniss, but something's weighing down my arm. It's her. She's already up here with me. I'm relieved she's recovered from the blast, but there's an urgency to her eyes.

"We need to find Peeta," she whispers.

"I'm sorry Katniss," I shake my head. "We don't have time."

I figure that Peeta is the male tribute from her district. The odds of him having survived the train roll are minimal. The girl only made it because of me. However, Katniss' eyes are pleading and I need to gain her trust. I know my fearsome appearance is probably already working against that. I weigh the benefits of a search and rescue against the odds of dying. I can hear fire crackling in nearby cars. More explosions are likely. However, if Katniss is really Primrose's sister, she might be a Keyblade wielder like me. Part of our job is to act as guardians of the Princesses of Hearts during times of great distress, so we tend to crop up near them. Like Sora and I did with Kairi. We were close childhood friends that all lived next door to each other. Katniss needs to be awakened to her power like we were. King Mickey knows how to do that. Until then, she's as frail as any human, but I decide to opt for search and rescue anyway. Her loyalty is worth the danger. Getting a third Keyblade wielder in our arsenal will be arguably far better than securing a Princess. Keybladers can fight. When fully trained, they can take on gods and pretty much anything any world could possibly throw at them. They have no rival.

Well, had no rival. Now there's only me and King Mickey. If there are still others out there, they don't care about what's happening to the worlds. Otherwise, they'd either be with us, the WRO (Worlds Resistance Operation), or they'd be dead. Organization XIII doesn't like it when we keep breathing.

I nod. "Okay, let's look for Peeta."

There's broken glass everywhere in the hallway. A meal tray is smashed against the wall, food mingled with gory human hair. Katniss cuts herself and I flinch at the stench of fresh blood. Nobodies can smell as good as I can, and the last thing we want to do is alert their sniffers. Nobodies are what we call the members of Organization XIII. The name sounds silly, but imagine camping in the woods alone and hearing a strange sound and asking, "Who's there?", only to get your throat slit by some ghost creature who whispers, "Nobody." That's how they usually get you. Stealth. And that's why their nickname sends shivers down my spine.

Katniss whimpers. I have a good idea of what she's found before I scale the corner. Peeta's body is crumpled under half of the drunk on what used to be the bathroom's ceiling. I don't know where the other half of the drunk went. The boy's skull is split open on the shower head and his back legs are broken. I turn Katniss' eyes away from the scene and pull her to my chest. She's warm. All humans are.

"Come on," I nudge her. "Let's go."

We emerge into a war zone. The festive banners celebrating the Hunger Games, which is what the Capitol calls the death fight between the child tributes, are ablaze and crowds of people in colorful clothes are running everywhere. Some are getting trampled. There's a low growl as one of the skyscrapers toward the center of the city collapses. Looking at it, I feel a jab in my chest. I can't shake the thought that DiZ was in there. Did he get out in time? A few of the other buildings around it are smoking. I can't let myself think about that right now. We need to find shelter. Fighter jets are falling out of the sky as tiny Nobody ships barrage them with lasers.

"Is it a rebellion?" Katniss gasps.

She looks so confused. I wish I had time to explain everything, to get across how afraid we should both be of this Nobody ambush, but I don't. A spindly Nobody is diving for us. It's a hollow, white husk of skin, sharpened bone, and aggression. I bet it smelled the blood. We call this type Dusks. I manifest my Keyblade from the shadows and arc the wickedly curved sword over my head. I look like a scorpion ready to strike. Katniss is terrified. She doesn't see the creature and thinks I'm aiming for her.

"Please!" she screeches.

My blade impales the Dusk right before it reaches her chest. She screams as the creature wriggles and bursts into streams of light. I almost lose my balance when she grabs my robe. She's pounding my chest, crying, completely freaking out. I don't know if it's the mortar fire or if she's babbling, but I can't make out a word. Somehow I get her down to the ground and we put some distance between us and the train. Movement is easy. Most of the crowd has dispersed. I see a few more Dusks. I ready a defense. They veer off to the right at the last moment and rip a fat guy to shreds. They're not interested in us. They're killing people and using them to spawn Heartless—shadowy, demonic creatures composed of the darkness of slain souls. Soon, tiny, featureless black monsters with glowing yellow orbs for eyes are bubbling up from the ground. Their insect-like antennas twitch as they sense my Keyblade. They're closing in and forming a circle around us. Katniss is falling into the grips of hysteria. I'm not sure I'll be able to defend her unless I can keep her calm.

"Katniss," I grab her shoulders and bring my blindfold level with her eyes. "You're going to see a lot of horrible things I can't explain at the moment. But I need you to trust me and stay with me. If you panic, we will die."

She's shaking. I don't know if I got through. I think she nodded. The creatures are closer. Only a few dozen yards away. I need some way to get her involved so she won't feel so helpless. I need to give her a sense of control over the situation, fast, or I'll lose her. I look around. There's a dead soldier with a rifle nearby. He was probably a security officer for the opening ceremonies of the Hunger Games. I toss his gun to Katniss. She catches it. That's a really good sign.

"Can you shoot?"

I move to show her how to hold it, but she braces it against her shoulder and points the nozzle straight at my head! She's going to shoot. I can see it in her eyes as they narrow. Her finger's squeezing down the trigger. This is it. I wince and brace for the end. I guess to her, I don't look much different from the strange creatures killing everybody. I should've been more careful. Instead of focusing so much on getting her to trust me, I should've spent some time questioning whether she was ready to be trusted. My mistake will cost us both our lives.

Bang! I stagger back. I'm still alive. How? A Heartless squeals and puffs into black smoke inches away from my left ear. If I was human, I'd be deaf now. If Katniss hadn't been there, I'd be dead.

Yes. She can shoot.


End file.
